Ou est la biblioteque?
La bibliothèque est fermée.
As to the pronunciation issue. … right now there is no one I can speak French to, beyond the little single sentence exercises that Duolingo provides… so no problem.
I’m actually proud that I am getting a lot better at the writing part.
The funny thing is that when I study Italian, I find that I naturally wave my arms around a lot when I speak.
I have seen things online that you can actually talk to a foreign person for this exact reason. Google this. Not sure if it’s a onetime fee monthly but you create a schedule and have like one-hour talks to practice the language you are attempting to learn.
This a great thread, and I just want to encourage everyone learning! I’m going to get back to practicing French even though we don’t have another trip planned (yet). I’m inspired by this thread to get better. We went last summer for three weeks to mostly small towns in the south of France. I did some review before leaving. I used to be fluent but hadn’t used it much in years. It was very helpful that I had done some reviewing.
When you’re actually traveling Rick Steves pocket guides are very helpful especially on food/ for reading menus to discern what the items are. And of course google translate if you just want to double check something (and your phone works).
Last summer in France especially in small towns in the south we were surprised (again) how many French people preferred that we speak French rather than them speaking English. I had learned from prior trips to France that the French people really appreciate your effort to speak even if it’s not perfect.
Also there were a number of French people in the smaller towns who had such limited English that we could not have communicated unless I struggled through in French! I needed it to arrange things over the phone especially a taxi coming to pick us up etc.
Anyway, keep it up!
I’m trying to jump-start my Spanish which I studied a while ago but mostly forgot. I also used Pimsleur (finishing the last course now). The italki site is very helpful and I enjoy chatting with people from different countries. I watch “The Grand Hotel” on Netflix in Spanish, it’s addictive. I have a very good book on Spanish grammar and this helps a lot, it’s easy to just look up things in it when I’m not sure. Also subscribed to Washington Post newsletter in Spanish and occasionally watch news videos.
Yes, that’s iTalki …
There is a French language ‘club’ (it’s a business) where you can take lessons or join groups to chat. They are doing it online during The Time of the Plague.
Has anyone her tried iTalki? There are quite a few instructors in the language that interests me (Croatian). On the website I noticed that most instructors offer trial sessions. Is that the best way to decide?
Wow, this thread is great. I’m reading a lot of the posts to my husband. He naturally has an excellent accent in French, so the efforts he’s taking to relearn the language will really pay off when we get over there this year or next.
When we were there in 1989 for the two hundredth anniversary of Bastille Day (my birthday!), when we would speak French people ALWAYS would respond in English. The one time we started in English was in a train station because we were running late. The agent rolled her eyes and said, “You Americans! You come over here and make no attempt to speak our language!” Ha.
I was at the train station in Marseille, in the ticket line behind an American woman who was loudly making her travel needs known in English. (Such a stereotype and really rather rare these days). The ticket guy just shrugged and ignored her until she left, still ticketless. In a panic I carefully mentally composed some sentences in very rusty high school French. As soon as I started, he stopped me and said: “It’s alright, I speak English perfectly well”.
Was doing well until This Pandemic then fell off the face of Duolingo and am posting here to encourage my return.
No, because I am incredibly horrid at learning foreign languages.
Flunked our of Hebrew School.
Took 6 years of French in Jr.high/high school.I could read and understand but could never speak more than a few words.
Was a foreign exchange student in a Spanish speaking country and never learned to speak more than a few swear words (which I still remember)
In college there was a language requirement. I decided to take Spanish as it’s easier than French. After the first half of semester, I pled my case to Dean to let me skip that requirement. I promised him I would never ever take a job where speaking any foreign language was necessary. I was allowed to substitute an internship with a politician instead.
H and I decided - at my urging - to take a class in Italian through my district’s adult Ed program.
I dropped out after a few weeks. I don’t know what I was thinking when I suggested we take the class.
Yucca10 - yes Grand Hotel is addictive! I haven’t found a Spanish language series that I’ve liked as much.
On Netflix you can play around with the subtitles. I start with none, then put in Spanish when I need clarification, and then use English when I’m really confused.
Interesting that many talked about all kinds of language apps. I asked D19 and she said just practice speaking, not waste an opportunity to speak the language, books, and YouTube videos. She learned Spanish in HS, she always tried to speak Spanish with anyone who would speak it with her, she became quite fluent. I didn’t know how good she was until we went on trips to Spanish speaking countries and she knew everything even with medical terms.
Now with Italian she is doing the same. She speaks Italian almost everyday with her friend from Italy. Now she is so confident she thinks she can study abroad in Italy taking Italian speaking classes. I think some people are very good with languages, and D has that. But I think it’s her hard work and determination really did it for her. I just couldn’t bother when it gets so hard to memorize.
^Although medical Spanish (Colonoscopia and Hematología) and Italian (Colonoscopia and Ematologia) are not exactly rocket science to the English speaker.
No- not at all. Use it or lose it. Not worth brushing up on my HS French or college German, either. I suppose I could stand to relearn touch typing if I’m bored enough (dropped out of my HS summer personal typing class because it was sooo boring and I never wanted to be picked as the only woman to be secretary)- who knew computers would come along? I also dropped out a summer computer class because it was too tedious to do COBALT and FORTRAN or such- but did do the field trip to the UW Comp Sci building in the late '60’s (later met a woman whose flagship didn’t even have a CS major in the same time frame- Midwest ahead of east coast, especially Illinois).
I should try. I find it exhausting because I realize I’m constantly translating in my head. I have never passed the point where I was actually “in” the other language, in my case French.
I had two years in h.s. with a fabulous, fun teacher and lord knows how or why, I placed into French IV when I took placement exams. Holy hannah. If I got a “C” I’d pick up credit for French III as well. I did it. I still don’t know how. It was French Lit and I feel the teacher must have been very easy on us. I’d read the stories in English so I could know them, then I’d write my test replies in French, of course. Somehow I got by. I was at UNC and had to even get my buddy over at Duke to get a copy of one of the books as UNC didn’t have it. Good times, good times.
I’ve reacquainted myself with my high school proficiency in Sarcasm.
for those just starting out I’ve found the Michel Thomas audio course a good complement to Pimsleur. While somewhat similar, I enjoyed the Thomas course which at times would give little anecdotes about the origin of the word or about the grammar. While nowhere near enough to carry on real conversations, Pimsleur and Thomas are useful for basic travel needs where you need to make a purchase, find something, go to a restaurant, etc. We’ve travelled in Italy and France and in the smaller villages often at a store or restaurant it would be their language or nothing and those courses gave us enough to get by.
For further study a noted linguish John McWhorter recommends Assimil (see https://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=5021582)
@newpreironic Now I’m watching El Barco. It’s more of a thriller but also very good.